Robert Burden's "Toy Box" fe
atures epic portraits of the small action figures that he played with as a
boy. The patterns that adorn many of his canvases are taken from fabric\, c
arpet or wall-paper patterns from his childhood home. His original toy is o
ften framed in a shadowbox attached to the painting\, acting as a modern re
liquary for these figurines. Burden enjoys the irony of spending hundreds a
nd hundreds of hours in order to make a single painting that glorifies an o
bject that was cheaply\, mass-produced for millions of kids.

"I remember these figures as being magnificent. They represented power\, be
auty\, good and evil\, and they captured every aspect of my imagination. As
a young adult\, these toys are wonderfully nostalgic\, but they're no long
er amazing to me. The ineffability of what can turn a cheap yet coveted pie
ce of plastic into an almost talismanic object was the original inspiration
for this work. I am also motivated by the amorphous line that is drawn bet
ween imagination and reality\, childhood wonder and adult practicality. Tho
ugh sheltered and naive\, there was a freedom in my childhood. It was free
from the politics of race and religion. It was free from the burdens of his
tory. It was free from rhetoric and paranoia\, shame and regret\, cynicism
and despair. There is nothing profound about commenting on the minor traged
y of losing one's innocence\, or the struggle to maintain one's idealism. I
just want to renew my faded sense of awe." – Robert Burden

Robert received his MFA in painting from the San Francisco
Art Institute in 2007 and his BFA from Queen's University in 2005. He was t
he recipient of the Murphy &amp\; Cadogan Fellowship Award in 2006 and the
Irene Pijoan Memorial Painting Award in 2007. He has exhibited in venues th
roughout North America including White Walls Gallery in San Francisco and R
oq la Rue Gallery in Seattle. Burden currently lives and works in San Franc
isco. Click the image above to access a video. <
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